Laud vigorously attacked Portland's corrupt administration. When Portland died in 1434, soon after Laud became Archbishop of Canterbury, the treasury was put into commission. The new Archbishop was made a commissioner of the treasury, and also head of the Committee for Foreign Affairs. He was thus able to exert a great influence over the policy of England. At first he was hampered by colleagues in the treasury who wished to tread in Portland's steps; but, in 1636, Juxon, who to Laud's joy had succeeded him in the see of London, was appointed Lord Treasurer because "his honesty was beyond dispute." Laud in England and Wentworth in Ireland were making "Thorough" a complete success when storm clouds gathered in Scotland, where the King's servants were feebler and less efficient men.

CHAPTER XXV

THE POLICY OF ARCHBISHOP LAUD

1633-1639

LAUD'S policy aimed at increasing the power of the Crown and giving it the whole-hearted support of a national Church to which all Englishmen were to conform. He tried to make the law supreme over the rich as well as over the poor, and naturally invoked the aid of the Court of Star-Chamber, which had been created in the reign of Henry VII. to curb the lawless nobility, and of the Court of High Commission, which Parliament established in Elizabeth's reign to enforce religious unity and morality by punishing offenders who had ceased to fear the discipline of a Church weakened by the Reformation. Such a policy was certain to excite violent opposition. In many respects it resembled that of the great French minister, Cardinal Richelieu. But whilst Richelieu struck fiercely and effectively at the French nobles who opposed the King, the executioner's axe was not used by Laud. In England there was no royal army to establish tyranny had Laud wished to make his King despotic.

Until Strafford was murdered by the Long Parliament, only one man was executed for politics or religion during Charles' reign. This victim, a Catholic priest,

was sent to the gallows by the over-zeal of a Puritan judge. Several old women, however, were put to death owing to the belief in witchcraft which was a feature of puritanism in England, Scotland, and the Puritan Colonies. Laud and his bishops discouraged this superstition and were instrumental in saving the lives of some so-called witches. After Laud's fall, from 1640 until the Restoration in 1660, thousands of old people were executed for the crime of witchcraft. Four members of the Puritan party, which persistently demanded the execution of Catholics, figure as the chief of Laud's victims. They were punished for publishing seditious pamphlets of the most extravagant character, and for obstinately glorying in their offences. Three lost their ears in the pillory, one was flogged, and all were imprisoned.

Clarendon states that there would have been little or no sympathy with Bastwick, Burton, and Prynne but for their position in society. One was a doctor, another a divine, and the third a lawyer. When professional men were punished" (as the poorest and most mechanic malefactors used to be, when they were not able to redeem themselves by any fine for their trespasses, or to satisfy any damages for the scandals they had raised against the good name and reputation of others) men began no more to consider their manners but the men, and each profession, with anger and indignation enough, thought their education and degrees and quality would have secured them from such infamous judgments, and treasured up wrath for the time to come." Two of these sufferers played a prominent part in the Civil War, and learned

some wisdom. In 1649, when resisting the establishment of Cromwell's tyranny, Lilburne, who had been flogged and imprisoned under Charles, said "that if it were possible for me now to choose, I had rather choose to live seven years under old King Charles' government (notwithstanding their beheading him as a tyrant for it) when it was at its worst before this Parliament, than live one year under their government that now rule." Ten years later Prynne was taking an active part in the restoration of monarchy in England.

In 1630 a Scotch minister, who had taken a medical degree in Leyden, but had failed to satisfy the examiners of the English College of Physicians, was practising clandestinely and at the same time writing seditious books. His book, called "An Appeal to Parliament; or Sion's Plea against Prelacy," is an excellent illustration of the manner in which religion was used to cloak incitement to rebellion and murder. In "Sion's Plea" the assassination of Buckingham, which was still fresh in men's minds, was represented as the work of "the Lord of Hosts." The Queen was described as a "daughter of Heth" whom the King had married when "he missed an Egyptian." Every evil was attributed to the bishops, and the people were urged to rise in armed rebellion against the government of the King. For less violent language men had been hanged in Elizabeth's reign. To follow up the murder of a Prime Minister by the publication of such a book would be regarded as a serious crime in modern England. That Leighton only suffered the loss of an ear, flogging, and imprisonment illustrates the

clemency, not the severity, of Charles' government. When the King's government was overthrown all these seditious writers were compensated by the Long Parliament, whilst Charles' servants were treated with an illegal severity which reminds the reader of the Merciless Parliament.

To put the royal finances in order was Laud's constant aim. Under Portland the King's debts were continually increasing. Large sums might have been obtained from the forest claims; but as there was no royal army, it was thought wise to abstain from extreme measures against the nobles, and the royal claims were abandoned in return for a small sum. The laws which forbade depopulation by the conversion of arable land into pasture were being broken. A commission was appointed to consider this abuse, and offenders were fined. Clarendon wrote of this part of Laud's policy: "The revenue of too many of the Court consisted principally in inclosures and improvements of that nature which he" (Laud) "still opposed passionately except they were founded upon law; and, then, if it would bring profit to the King, how old and obsolete soever the law was, he thought he might justly advise the prosecution. And so he did a little too much countenance the commission concerning depopulation, which brought much charge and trouble upon the people, and was likewise cast upon his account." Here those who were depopulating the land are called "the people.' the people." Clarendon had little sympathy with the poor who were being driven from their homes.

Laud's agrarian policy made enemies amongst the